Showtime was a comedy vehicle for Eddie Murphy and
Robert De Niro. The idea of having them paired in a buddy cop movie
might seem intriguing at first, but sadly it came down as run of the
mill stuff with Eddie Murphy doing his comedy routine while De Niro is
doing his tough lone ranger routine without too much chemistry between
them. De Niro plays Mitch Preston, a tough old school detective who
hates publicity and Eddie Murphy plays officer Trey Sellars, a member of
the troop who is more interested in acting and his own ego instead of
doing real police work. Meanwhile, TV network producer Chase Renzy
(played by Rene Russo) is struggling for a new reality show concept
following real cops during their dangerous shifts on the streets. Chase
becomes aware of Mitch and Trey, so they are being casted for the show
but the different personas don't get along too well. However, they are
forced to let their differences behind as a mysterious, new bad guy with
a new, extremely lethal weapon shows up. It really felt like everyone in
this movie was just so focused on himself instead of making an
entertaining movie. Apart from some smile-inducing moments that mainly
are due to De Niro's ability to make the best even of the most boring
roles, most gags just feel forced and aren't funny at all. Box office
response wasn't that good either (even guest stars like William Shatner
as TJ Hooker didn't help much) and to make things worst, his appearance
in Showtime "earned" De Niro his one and only razzie nomination
to this day.

The score:

Alan Silvestri is probably the perfect
choice for the scoring task on a buddy cop movie. Having scored such
successful cop TV series as CHiPs (1978-1983) as well as
Starsky & Hutch (1977), he even fits the reality TV aspect that
Showtime required. Sadly though, from listening to the score it seems
like he ended up just as puzzled by the bad movie he had in front of him
as the audience the movie never reached. He obviously tried to treat all
aspects of the crippled story with an individual musical concept which
lead to a lot of short, situation-focused tracks ranging from suspense
to humour and a bit of action scoring thrown in without much of a
thematic guidline. There are only two things that come remotely close to
being called themes. The first one is a simple but quite funny synth
tune consisting of an unobtrusive slap bass accentuation and an heroic,
electronic brass fanfare in typical Silvestri fashion that functions as
source music and is the fictional TV show's main theme. Then, there is a
motif for the TV network employees. Whenever they do something with the
show or discuss it, this tune is playing. It's a very simple combination
of pizzicato strings with a very basic rhythmic accompaniment and an
occasional slap bass line. The film's disastrous box office existence
made a score-only release an illusion and a song album without any score
was the only release that came out until a bootleg release appeared in
mid 2007.

By looking at the individual tracks it
becomes even more clear why Showtime isn't a good listen. Already
the first 10 tracks, besides being short, have absolutely no connection
to each other. After the 'As Time Goes By'-Warner Bros. Logo music, the
"Showtime Theme" is starting the CD. As described earlier, the theme is
quite simple and isn't really a main theme for the underscore as it
mainly appears as source music for the TV show within the film. In the
next track, militaristic snare drums are heard to create a comic effect
when "Detective Preston Teaches" little kids in a dead serious fashion.
Even though this track is far from a good listen, it managed to create
some fun in the film quite successfully and was actually a decent
opening. Silvestri scores "Trey's Rehearsal" with a short emotional
track for strings, horns and flute but the track really is too short to
trigger any significant emotional impact. Following this soft dramatic
cue is dark brooding suspense music in "Drug Deal Assembly" with low
brass, shrill and dark synths and occasional staccato strikes that are
anything but a pleasant musical idea though in the movie this track
serves it's purpose in a tension filled scene as Mitch and a colleague
are undercover to bust some dealers. A gentle synth rhythm which is
quickly joined by exotic percussion starts off "Money And Shit", noting
the appearance of Trey who stumbles into the deal, leading to a "TV
Repair Shop Shootout" - one of the few real action tracks. But sadly it
is a bit on the stop-and-go, almost mickey-mousey side and barely really
develops a true drive save for a brief moment with a fast string
ostinato. An eerie, quietly rising string pad at the end is heard when
Mitch is shooting the camera of an annoying reporter.

Next comes the introduction of
the motif for the TV network guys. As we see how "Renzi and Brad
negotiate" about the video material of Mitch's camera shot and to get a
series done, the unobtrusive rhythm appears, soon joined by the simple
melody on pizzicato strings before the slap bass rhythm comes in. While
this idea is intriguing and quite nice, it can get really on your nerves
when it appears almost without variation over and over again in such
short cues as "Two Visitors", "Preston Leaves", "Good Chemistry", "Micro
Cameras In The Car", "Crime Scene Arrival", "Surprise" or "Loose Change Dish". It's nothing
more than a neat little idea that wears out in the long run. On the
other hand, "Busting The Thief" is a brief but very fun action track
with cool dynamics, consisting of Silvestri's orchestral handling over a
hip backdrop of e-guitars and exotic percussion as Trey is busting a
thief. A funny musical moment comes at the end when Trey gives a stupid
one liner. Silvestri accentuates Trey's 'acting' with a short, overly
serious low brass statement to a solid, comic effect. "Vargas Appears"
is just another strained layer of unmusical, brooding sound design with
a lonely, quiet woodwind hopelessly trying to get through and the usual
Silvestrian moaning brass effect at the end when the gangster Vargas
blows up the house of a traitor. A much too short moment of string
suspense accompanies Mitch's and Trey's investigations at the "Collapsed
House". What follows now in "Burning Car" and "The Director Bursts
In" (as well as "Mitch's New Car" later on) is a collection of tracks
with steady integration of an e-guitar and a very squeezed, simple brass
motif while "Hood Jumping" and "T.J. Okay" are short reprises of the
heroic synth brass Showtime-theme. "Trey's Tale" is similar to "Trey's
Rehearsal" as it features the same brief emotional melodrama.

By the time one reaches "Charlie
Advises" and "Partner" the interest in the score might have already
dwindled away completely and sadly these two cues don't add much either
apart from some faint exotic percussion in the latter track. "Pottery
Studio" is somewhat cool because it introduces a nice, quirky little
motif consisting of flute, tuba and pizzicato strings for Mitch's grumpy
side in between another statement of the TV network motif. "Scratched"
is too short and not very interesting while "New Workspace / Showtime"
has yet again that already annoying TV network motif and more e-guitar
stuff at the end. Finally, there is some sign of orchestral power in the
presence of a dominant horn fanfare at the beginning of "Muffler Test /
Trey's Plan" while a simple arrangement for small rhythmic section
follows. "Rerun Gives Evidence" is a small but funny piece that emulates
a ticking clock through orchestral colours. Exotic but simple samba
rhythms are heard in "Rerun's Story Stalled" with some brief moments for
high trumpet and piano. "Mitch And Trey" is a smoky, laid back sax piece
in best tradition of Silvestri's Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988).
The later following tracks "It's Over" as well as "Watching The Show"
are also carrying that soft, jazzy sensibility and even though none of
them is as good as anything from Roger Rabit these tracks are still a
welcome change in sound. It's underlining a growing bonding between the
two main characters. A short suspense outburst highlights "Another
Surprise" before the scores one and only true highlight finally blasts
through the speakers. "The Big Hit And City Chase" is a cool action
moment that combines a bit of Michael Kamenesque sensibilities for
scoring urban action scenes with Silvestri's strong orchestral identity.
There are screaming fanfares, pounding percussion, exotic drums,
e-guitars, nervous strings and even some interesting chord progressions,
all that is very much different and so much better than what this score
offered so far.

"Mitch Saved" is just another reprise
of "Scratched" and "The Dog Stays" isn't much different from "Pottery
Studio". A short cue with dominant Silvestri fanfares and exotic
percussion is "A New Lead", if only it were longer it might actually be
fun to listen to. "Arrival At The Gun Show" is mainly suspense with
slight, exotic percussion while "Gunfire And Escape" is the last moment
of solid action music, reprising some material from "The Big Hit And
City Chase". As the track title implies, "Hostage Situation And Pool
Flood" is mainly suspense with a brief moment of rising action at the
end. I can't remember hearing "Reprise" in the movie which was probably
meant as a bridge to the end credits song because some of the stylistic
elements from the score and the Showtime theme are combined here though
just as the majority of the music this way of ending the score somehow
just feels unsatisfying.

Review by Andreas Creutzburg

RATING:

Score as heard in the film:
59%

Score as heard on CD:39%

TOTAL:
49%

The
presentation:

Bootlegs of Silvestri's scores just seem to fly in en
masse recently. Showtime is just one among several others and
came completely unexpected. Of course, it contains the whole score
clocking in at 45 minutes and even more because there are even some bits
of music cut from the film. Sound quality is also very good even though
there seem to be some moments of unbalanced volume where the music just
becomes a bit louder but it's still better than the DVD rear channel
music / sfx rip that briefly made the round. Beware if you are finding
this bootleg in a store: This is a real pressed CD and otherwise looks
like a normal CD release with a faked barcode on the back cover but it
is still just an illegal pressing, so in case you find it anywhere you
may want to think twice before paying money for it!

Presentation by
the Label:Bootleg

Summary:

Showtime is one of those
projects that makes one scratching the head about why Alan Silvestri
accepted it. To be fair, the concept of having De Niro and Murphy in one
comedy vehicle is tempting but ultimately did not pay off for anyone -
not for De Niro, not for Murphy and certainly not for Sivestri because
the movie ended up very badly, resulting in the score for Showtime
being a
problematic effort for a problematic movie. It feels like a collection of
tracks that have barely a connection to each other and are lacking any
strong thematic guidance like Silvestri was focused on doing just
something that does not interfere with the many dialog-heavy scenes. As
this is Silvestri though there are occasional moments of film music
genius where he enhances or creates a comic moment in the film. But
seperated from the film this score is far from a good listening experience
and bare of really stand-out moments except for the big action track
"The Big Hit And City Chase". The
majority of the tracks have a very short running time which combined with
the general lack of coherence or strong, thematic material makes
Showtime an uncomfortable score to listen to. However, if you are
patient enough to edit a 'highlights' CD of the 45 minutes of score
material from this bootleg you might be able to increase the pleasure a
bit.